BALTIMORE – Aliyah Lawson scored a game-high 21 points as Coppin State women's basketball team fell to Howard, 79-60, on Saturday afternoon at PEC Arena. The Eagles now stand at 2-9 overall with a 2-7 mark in the MEAC while the Bison improve to 11-3 on the year and lead the Northern Division with a 7-2 record in league play.
Lawson continued her impressive play with her second-straight 20-plus point game and her third in the last five games. A junior from Whitby, Ontario, Canada, Lawson buried five 3-pointers to match a season-high and also grabbed four rebounds.
Jalynda Salley also finished in double figures, recording 12 points and eight rebounds with two assists in just 18 minutes of playing time.
Alexandria Hamilton added eight points while
Nailah Delinois hit a pair of threes and
Hope Evans chipped in with five points, six rebounds and a matched Hamilton with a team-high three assists.
Coppin got out quick with threes by Lawson and Delinois on its first two possessions of the game, taking a 6-0 lead. Howard answered with five-straight before Salley hit a jumper inside to give the Eagles an 8-5 lead at the 6:34 mark.
The Bison closed the period on an 11-0 run to take a 16-8 lead, but CSU fought right back with five-straight points to open the second with a three by
Unique Meyers and a nifty layup by Evans. Howard was able to extend its advantage to as many as ten points and took a 34-27 lead into the half.
Howard started strong out of the gate to start the second half to take a 41-30 lead with 7:54 to play until Coppin scored seven quick points, pulling to within 43-39 just 1:41 later. Salley had an easy putback after grabbing an offensive rebound before Lawson drove inside for back-to-back layups and fed Delinois for a triple in the corner.
The visitors, however, were able to get those points back and began to pull away, taking a 63-46 lead going into the final quarter.
Howard outshot Coppin, 44.4% to 33.3% and outrebounded the guard-oriented Eagles, 49-32, leading to 30 second-chance points.
The same two teams meet again on Sunday, February 21 at PEC Arena for a 1 pm tipoff.
